At Home in Riverside

Northside Neighborhood

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The Northside neighborhood is located at the northern gateway into the City of Riverside and is one of the City’s oldest neighborhoods. It is a well established neighborhood made up of both long time and new residents. Over a century ago the neighborhood was well known for its natural sulphur spring. Water from the spring was bottled and sold to the public. In 1886, William Elliot purchased the sulphur spring site just east of Strong and Main Streets. He drilled a 370-foot well to increase water flow and built an elaborate pool and bathhouse. Early Hollywood stars such as Buster Keaton and Houdini filmed movie scenes at the pool.

Marked by strong edges, the neighborhood is bounded on the west by the Santa Ana River, on the south by the 60 Freeway, on the east by Interstate 215 and on the north by the Riverside City/San Bernardino County Line. The neighborhood consists of a diversity of uses that makes it unique, including residential, office, industrial, retail and extensive recreational facilities. The majority of the neighborhood is residential with a variety of housing options. There are many bungalow style, single-family homes on deep rural style lots dating back to the 1930’s. The neighborhood also has traditional medium density suburban tract homes, condominiums, apartments and, more recently, gated planned residential communities.

A modern office park development is located at the southern end of the neighborhood, just north of the 60 Freeway, at Market Street. The north end of the neighborhood near the County line has a variety of industrial uses including recently built concrete tilt-up industrial park development. A variety of commercial businesses located on La Cadena Avenue line the east edge of the neighborhood.

The Northside neighborhood is home to a long-standing homeowners’ group, the Northside Improvement Association. Founded in 1912, the association is the oldest neighborhood group of its kind in the City and has been instrumental in providing an effective forum for addressing community concerns and guiding development in the Northside neighborhood.

The neighborhood is rich in parks, public facilities and schools. Local residents have ready access to Reid Park and Pool, the Ruth H. Lewis Community Center,
and the Ab Brown Sports Complex. Expanded in 2007, Reid Park is an extensive community park with 42 acres that includes a community center, public pool, barbeque and covered picnic facilities, a playground, volleyball, basketball, and tennis courts, as well as baseball, softball and soccer fields. The 55-acre Ab Brown Sports Complex is a City-wide special use park with sixteen soccer fields. The new Northside Fire Station #6 located on Orange Street just north of Columbia Avenue proudly serves the neighborhood. Schools within the neighborhood include Fremont and Patricia Beatty Elementary schools. Other fine schools serve Northside residents from nearby neighborhoods.